Re: Chinese drywall again.

[Warm Worm]

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Bah, so be it. Life is one big idea and we all get booted out of tangibility anyway.

[Warm Worm]

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Another good idea.

[Warm Worm]

Sounds good, but you want me to supply the roof beams for the model? What about the stir sticks?

Looking at that, I doubt we'll have much trouble with a small house model.

Absolutely; Merritt, Kelowna (before the fire), Peachland (ate peaches in season right out of the basket); Kamloops and went through various other small towns in the area. I wonder what Revelstoke or Cranbrook's like.

[creative1986]

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Now that the weather has turned a little unsavory I have had to adjust my wardrobe accordingly. I have taken to wearing realtree suspenders with my long pants. On a normal day my belt (a standard industrial grade black leather,

1.75 inches wide) is loaded with utilitarian objects (tape measure, 2 knives, and **emergency case) and provides very little in the way of support, in fact it tends to head south, thus the suspenders transfer the load to my shoulders, and I find them rather comfortable. **Ballistic nylon case, about 4"x4"x1" with velcro flap containing a bic lighter, tactical serrated knife, (1) AA cell Dorcey LED flashlight, 2 space blankets and a plastic lidded tube with vaseline saturated cotton balls.

[creative1986]

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Whats the white thing with a button in the middle, in front of the boat?

[Warm Worm]

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Suspenders rock... Hey, when underwears' elastics get too stretched out, their usefulness could be prolonged by using suspenders. The cool thing about your favourite belt of mine is that because it has two "prongs" instead of one, there's a valuable element of redundancy in case one blows out.

For topic: I'm learning a little about spans and I presume joists are set 1 foot apart? Also, I presume about a 3-foot min clearance is needed for door and hallways?

[creative1986]

On a shotgun? LOL I have a 6x9 variable on my winchester .348 but the trajectory is so high its almost worthless. Soon I'll get a winchester model 70 in 30.06 and the scope will go on that.

[creative1986]

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Rarely. Setting joists at 12" implies an enormous load or undersized components. I'd have to see the entire parameter to give an educated idea of whats required.

In real cheap dwellings, presuming you mean an entrance door to a bedroom at the end of a hallway. Typically, in a builder grade home I'll design a 3'-4" hallway and all bedroom doors will be 2'-6" wide. A 3' hallway with a 30" door at the end will not allow enough room to paint the edges of the casing. Don't forget to allow at least 1/4" on each side for shimming. Most places these days require a 2'-8" entrance door to the bathroom and if the vanity is located next to the door you'll have a problem if the bathroom is 5' wide. This is the case in one of the 2 bathrooms on our 2nd floor. (we have a 3rd bathroom on the 1st floor) The builder chose to, can you believe this?, notch the vanity to make room for the door casing. The first time I saw that I stood there and marveled at the complete idiocy and potential of such a person. Last year when I gutted that bathroom I yanked the vanity and installed a pedestal lav, and yes, installed all new casing. Problem solved.

[Warm Worm]

Just wait until you see my pics. ;)

Thanks for the specs. I'll be designing for 2x6 or maybe even 2x4 rafters and may use a summer halfway. I have 2'-6" on bathroom doors right now. Adding an extra 2" is possible but it's going to throw some things out as space is, at least, perceptively, tight. (There should be a storage loft immediately above that bathroom. Joists (attached to the summer) there are spaced 24" I'm thinking about an under-the-counter fridge instead too. The fridge that's there looks big if still seems to fit (depending on width of front door. Code?) Hallway, which is also the kitchen and an atrium, is roughly 4' wide I think (13' long; ~15' high) , with main entrance doors at both ends. The house design can be laterally bisected for 2 separate apartments (2 baths) and uses all sliding doors ("shoji screens" that bisect the rooms and make them more flexible) and panels (wondering what material for the 3'-high white things that replace the loft safety railings-- maybe Corian?). All plumbing is on ground floor in one small locale. It's looking good from a 3d model pov. The shed roof has a 45 deg slope and I'm thinking that glass windows right over would make things dramatic and light.

Here are some pics:

I recently realized that I have to raise the lower floor up a little due to the roof's slope apparently making the whole house's rise and run needing to be equal. So ceiling's may be 9'-3". (I wonder how I'm going to add the straw bales, electrical/plumbing and skin.)

Here are some of my CAD quicknotes for a laugh:

- fastest way to make 3d window frames in ACAD? (ie. at 90deg to plan)

- loft-ladder rise/run dims?

- model more effectively in 3d without having to relocate the ucs all the time?

- plines with corner points instead of in the middle?

- hide selected object without hiding its layer?

- thickness of floor from top of joist (subflooring, etc.)

All suggestions, criticisms welcomed. Copyright for the design is GPL.

[creative1986]

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OK, here's the deal. It ok to design with nominal dimensions like say, 4" wide interior walls, but you have to understand that such a thing is not really possible in todays world. So therefore it requires a broad range of knowledge and experience in a variety of related field in order to design a building on paper that has some chance of actually being built in the real world, otherwise its just so much playtime.

For example, a 30" wide door will require this:

30" for the door itself 3/4" on each side for the jambs 1/4" on each side for shims. So your rough opening for a 30" door is 32" minimum. You can make it 33" and use more shims, but you really shouldn't because it will net a *loose* door jamb or other materials will be necessary to make it tight. 2x4's ain't 2x4.

There are hundreds if not thousands of little things like this that a designer must know in order to design a successful residential project and guess what? Most of it is not taught in the schools but must be learned in the field with blisters on your hands. I know, they hurt and all that but its the best way. I suppose you can apprentice with someone that already knows this stuff but I've always been an advocate of self learning whenever possible. Besides, construction work has always pretty decent money so you actually get paid to learn. What a plan!

Otherwise, if you don't know these things and try to move ahead with your project you will get major issues right away. For example, the guy that does the lumber take-off will know immedately that he's dealing with a novice and gauge his paperwork accordingly. Same with everybody else thats involved with the thing.

Basically, in a nutshell, a person should not attempt to design in 3d until he has mastered designing in 2d. You have to walk before you run otherwise you'll most likely land on your ass, hard.

Frankly, I've never seen the advantage of designing in 3d. But I do see disadvantages to it. It tends to skew the viewpoints and the overall picture in ones mind, that is, assuming one has that picture in the first place. If this is just one of those play as you go things then disregard what I've said because there will never be any reality to it anyway.

Knowledge of materials and construction methods is really critical in design and I don't see anyway around that. And those things, materials and methods, can be regional, varying by locale.

Be careful when asking for criticism because sometimes it has meaning not immediately recognized.

Oh yeah, regarding drawing a 3d window. Rather than design it *on site*, design it in its own drawing then wblock it into the end result. Then you can avoid all that messy UCS stuff. Just pay attention to where you put your insertion point. You are aware aren't you that windows come in standard sizes? In fact, most of the better manuf'rs have dwg's of their products on their sites for downloading. FWIW, I end up redrawing most of that stuff or spend considerable time cleaning them up. Its appalling that even companies like Kohler for example have cad techs on staff that clearly have their heads in their asses. (just this morning I redrew their Fairfax kitchen faucet in (front) elevation view for a project I'm working on because the wblock from their site was just not useable - the person that did that should be fired, as well as his/her supervisor)

(There should

[creative1986]

Me too, and I'm in the business! If you can't see it in staright 2d you'll never see it in 3d either. To complicate it further, they weren't even 3d, they were 2d meant to emulate 3d, without the 3rd d. Now if they made a 3d monitor.....

If they put me on the payroll at say, $80k per year I'll police their product CAD drawings. Otherwise, its none of my business what they do. BTW: I spent a fair amount of change on Kohler products last year and they will never earn another red cent off my ass. They ain't all that........